The Writing Prompt Boot Camp

WD Poetic Form Challenge: Bref Double Winner

Thank you for all the bref doubles earlier this spring! They were a lot of fun to read–and I’ve been having fun trying to write some more on the side. Something about 14 lines poems, I guess.

My initial short list included 21 poems, but there could only be one winner. The winning poem of the Writer’s Digest Bref Double Form Challenge is “The Zen of Fishing,” by Jane Shlensky.

Here’s the winning Bref Double:

The Zen of Fishing, by Jane Shlensky

He likes to fish late afternoon
when boaters pack and head for home;
he’s claimed a finger of the lake
where herons wade in shade of trees.

He packs a sandwich, water, flares,
humming a sentimental tune.
Sometimes he doesn’t bait a hook–
just sits, his elbows on his knees.

Long shadows stretch along the shore;
fish leap in arching brief ballet.
In silence he can’t bear to break,
he wades into deep empty ease,

but sometimes he will hear a loon
that moves him just like loving’s ache.

*****

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53). He loves reading poetry, writing poetry, and studying poetry–but he especially loves sharing poetry and is happy that Poetic Asides is a place that accommodates just that.

Robert is married to the poet Tammy Foster Brewer, who helps him keep track of their five little poets (four boys and one princess). Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

The Zen of Fishing – absolutely wonderful. My Uncle and Dad were great fishermen. I grew up on a creek bank. This speaks to much to me. I love it very much! Thank you for submitting and I am truly glad you won!